"Oh well, I expected it to be infeasible but it would have been cool."

"It would. If I had mana to spare, I think I could block air vents and keep the air circulating, but I don't at this time."

"I think a lot of us could do a lot more if we didn't have to worry about mana costs."

Nod nod. "If the induction spell didn't take it I wonder if things would be different."

"I hadn't really thought about that. I think it would probably be helpful but I'm not sure how long an amount of storage you can carry would last. At a minimum it would probably make your first year safer."

"Perhaps if the rule were something like, a student may bring any amount of stored mana provided an equal amount is donated to the school, there would be more total resources available to the students."

"That's a cool idea. I think that's why you get extra weight allowance but I think most people don't think it's worthwhile at the exchange rate the school uses."

"Precisely. So, taking weight in is very costly, but if the mana were donated directly, it would likely seem worthwhile. But perhaps it is too late to alter this school in that way and it will have to wait for a second to be built."

"Is that likely to happen? It seems like there's a lot of problems with this one but it was really hard to make."

"There is talk of it in China. Currently just a threat, but I cannot expect it will remain only a threat for long."

"Especially with what happened to Chicago."

"I hope a new school is the most that comes of that."

"Me too. I don't think it's likely that any of the Sinoshere Enclaves are responsible... I don't really see how it would help them but it'll definitely increase tensions even if there is an explanation."

"Yes. Politics is frustrating."

"It is. Hopefully calmer heads will prevail."

Nod nod.

Other topics ... maybe Ribo should ask about hobbies, no she said she didn't think she'd have time for class so she won't have time for those either. "What languages do you have?"

"Jin and Mandarin. I have a Korean history class and expect Korean in the language lab."

"I know English, Mandarin and Lojban, I'm in a similar situation with a Russian literature class."

"I haven't heard of - Lou-zhe-ban?"

"I'm not surprised, it's an artificial language Mother picked for it's unusual syntax and its obscurity."

"That must make it hard to stay in practice."

"That's a good point, before I came here I mostly talked to Mother so it wasn't an issue really. We had a schedule and rotated between the three languages I knew. I expect I'll still be reading her notes and casting Lojban spells regularly but that is a bit less fluid than conversation."

"I have heard you don't need much fluidity to cast."

"That's probably true, though Mother's spells are mostly designed to be tweaked on the fly so I need more fluidity than most people to use them to their limit. That's a bit of a moot point though since using them to their limit also takes way more mana than I have."